Quotes from Margaret Thatcher

When people are free to choose, they choose freedom

It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

They might have beaten us at our national sport, but we managed to beat them at their national sport twice in the 20th century. [Replying to Kenneth Clarke, who said, "Isn't it terrible about losing to the Germans at our national sport?" when England lost to Germany in the 1990 FIFA World Cup Semi-final.]

Some Socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a State computer. We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else, however much the Socialists may pretend otherwise. We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.

For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other's good intentions.

Consensus is the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects. - Margaret Thatcher.

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean - power over people, power to the State.

In general, more nonsense was written about the so-called 'feminine factor' during my time in office than about almost anything else. I was always asked how it felt to be a woman Prime Minister. I would reply: 'I don't know: I've never experienced the alternative.

And I will go on criticising Socialism, and opposing Socialism because it is bad for Britain (...) It's the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They've got the usual Socialist disease – they've run out of other people's money.

In politics, if you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman

Nazism (national Socialism) and communism (international socialism) were but two sides of the same coin.

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

It's a funny old world.

A week is a long time in politics

If you want something said,ask a man;if you want something done,ask a woman.

Give me six men and true, and I will get policies through.

It's no time to be wobbly, Geo.

There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money.

while the home must always be the centre of one's life, it should not be the boundary of one's ambitions'.

If you can't afford it, you can't have it.

Defeat? I do not recognise the meaning of the word.

en realidad iba directamente al núcleo de la cuestión de cuál debía ser el papel del Gobierno en una sociedad libre. Era tarea del Gobierno establecer un marco de estabilidad —ya fuera estabilidad constitucional, el cumplimiento de la ley, o la estabilidad económica